The U.S. Transportation Department will today propose a remake of its influential crash-test ratings system to incorporate new technology designed to avoid collisions — and recruit new test dummies.
Regulators will add a crash-avoidance element to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s star ratings system as well as an angled frontal collision test, according to two people familiar with the proposal who requested anonymity. The agency will unveil its proposal at a news conference in Washington Tuesday.
Regulators are also looking at ways to give automakers credit for designs that avoid potentially fatal collisions with pedestrians and mitigate severity of injuries if people are hit. They’d also like to add new crash-test dummies that can more accurately measure potential injuries in car crashes.
The death toll on U.S. highways rose 8.1 percent in the first half of 2015 as low fuel prices contributed to a jump in miles driven by Americans, according to the U.S. Transportation Department. The preliminary figures represent a “troubling departure” from a general downward trend over the past decade, the NHTSA said in a report last month. In 2014, the fatality rate hit an all-time low.
Comments sought
At the time, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the figures were “a call to action.”
The agency will ask industry and safety groups to comment on the proposed changes to the safety ratings system being announced Tuesday.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, representing General Motors Co., Ford Motor C. and others, said it would provide “constructive comments” on the proposal but applauded the agency’s acceptance of industry-pioneered technology.
“The more that consumers hear about our advanced safety technology and its potential benefits, the more likely they will choose that technology when car shopping,” Wade Newton, the group’s spokesman, said in an e-mail.
Star scale
The New Car Assessment Program has been around since the 1970s, when the regulator graded how well cars performed in a frontal crash test on a one-to-five star scale. Over the years, NHTSA has added a side-impact test and a rollover stability rating. Last year, the agency added advanced braking systems to the ratings.
The agency also maintains a list of recommended auto safety technologies, such as back-up cameras and warning systems that alerts a driver when their vehicle has moved out of its lane.
The agency proposed Monday that trucking companies be required to install stronger guards on their trailers to reduce deaths caused when cars rear-end tractor trailers.
Americans drove about 51.9 billion miles more in the first half of 2015 than the same period last year, about a 3.5 percent increase, NHTSA said. Job growth and low fuel prices also may be factors in the sudden, unexpected surge in highway fatalities, the agency said. There was also more leisure travel and driving by young people, which can contribute to higher fatality rates.
However, the death rate also increased. Fatalities per million vehicle-miles driven rose in the first half of 2015 was 1.06 percent, or 4.4 percent higher than the same period in 2014. In final figures for 2014, 32,675 people died in U.S. motor-vehicle crashes, a 0.1 percent decline from 2013. The fatality rate declined to 1.07 deaths per million vehicle-miles traveled, which was a record low for a complete year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Plungis in Washington at jplungisbloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97bloomberg.net Elizabeth Wasserman
